<p>Hello, I currently attend the University of Florida and am having a very hard time adjusting. I know, I know... You thinking "oh one of those threads again" but I've searched on here for similar situations with similar circumstances like mine but none are even close to the hell that I have gone through here. </p>
<p>To start off, I already had cold feet when I came here. I honestly just came because of the prestige and opportunities I felt that I could have by coming here. My first semester started off well.... For about a week. My roomate, who'd told me the 1st day I moved in that she was gay, asked me if her gf could come and visit over the weekend. It was a policy that the dorm had that said any guests of residents there could only stay for 3 days at a time. Not only did her gf say for that entire week but she'd picked Up everything she had and moved from SC and moved here to Florida to live with us in our small dorm room. During that time I witnessed on several occasions them getting in violent arguements(fist fights, knife fights, broke items in my room, fought in public around me) and initially I tried to overlook these incidents because they were really the only friends/ people I knew and I did not want there to be any tension between us. But this became too hard to ignore and after my roommates girlfriend started to pick on me I went to my RA and told her everything. She did nothing and told me that it would be Hard to transfer to another room. She suggested I speak with my roomate about the issue and I did and told her that I did not want her gf living with us anymore. That was a lie bc soon after that I saw her gf leaving room with boxer on and a sports bra like she was at home. All of the girls belongings were still in my dorm room as well. I the was forced to go above my RA's head and talk to the housing association at UF and they also were making its hard for me to move to another dorm, claiming that our differences seemed like something that could be worked out. My mom had to drive all the way from home to come up here and get me moved to another dorm. I was very optimistic about this second dorm up until I opened the door and saw how filthy these new people lived. Up until today I still have a problem with their cleanliness. They never EVER bother to clean.. I am not a very neat person and dont mind it if their rooms were messy but I feel like it's just a common curtesy when your living with other people to clean up after yourself. These people do none of this. They leave food all over the kitchen counters and floors, leave dirty dishes all over the place, let the garbage pile all over the kitchen while it stinks up the whole dorm. One oct my roomate sheds hair a lot and leaves big hair balls all over the kitchen hallway and bathroom floor. Last semester I was cleaning up(I'm the only one who does) the bathroom that I use bc it smelled horrid bc there was a towel that'd been in there the whole month that I had been in the dorm and I asked one of my 3 roommates whose was it and he got snippy w me and said idk. So I just put it up from w the rest of the filth and the other roomate got angry w me and to this day will not speak to me at all. Nobody ever speaks to me. I have no friends although I have tried n countless occasions to go to club gbm and socialize with others. The only friends I have is a friend I knew from highschool and a girl who does not even respond back to me half of the time when I contact her. I am also doing horrible in my chemistry class. I knew I was going to fail some exams and classes in college but it's like no matter what I do in this class I fail. Am I not trying hard enough to assimilate to college? I feel like I don't know what else to do other than transfer. In fact, the only time when I am happy here is when I am considering the option of transferring </p>
<p>Hey, that sucks that the RA didn’t help and your new roommates are slobs. You were right to go over the RA’s head and may want to look into filing a complaint so they can give you a single, you’ve earned it. Have you gone to any advisors about your Chemistry class? You may able to withdraw without penalty and take it over the summer. Before you transfer, make sure they will let you transfer everything.</p>
<p>I am currnently in a 4 bedroom apt style dorm so its kind of like i am in a single. The only thing about me filing another complaint is that i dont think that they will give me another opportunity to move since i had to go through so much to get them to move me last semester. And i have gone to advisors, not so much about my chemistry class but about other classes and i know that i can drop[ the class by april 11 and will have to pay them back(the school?Bright futures? idk yet) for the class but my family and i are not very wealthy so if i were to drop this class i would not be able to pay for that class over the summer since i am going back home to take another class (calculus) over the summer as well. i also can not take another class over the summer because i really need to work & make extra money to paythe first 2 months of my rent(my financial aid will not be out to cover it that month) in the apt i am leasing. I recently visited usf and am leaning towards goingthere since i also have friends who are attending and renting an apt there. ive already toured the place and it is alot cheaper and just as nice as the place i would be living in here in the fall. the only thing i am concerned about is whether or not they will let me transfer everything but i contacted the admissions office and they stated that one they give me a decision, i would be able to talk to an advisor and see if all my credits would transfer. is this true? i dont get why i couldnt just talk to someone and see now if they would. that would save alot of time for me. </p>
<p>Have you tried talking to messy roommates? “Hey, I noticed our apartment is kinda dirty lately, can you help me clean it”? Or maybe set up a chore schedule? I know a couple rooms have a fun rule where anything left dirty for more than a day goes in the trash. But it’s probably a bit late to change things now, since the semester’s almost over and it sounds like you’ve been ignoring it for so long already.</p>
<p>Have you made an effort to make friends? Have you turned to those people next to you in chemistry and said let’s make a study group? Have you joined any clubs? I guess the biggest question is, would transferring make anything better? I’ve been through the bad luck with roommates thing before… sure, it’s easier to make friends if you’ve got cool roommates/floormates, but you shouldn’t let them stop you from making friends, nor should they be your entire social life.</p>
<p>Chemistry: Can you talk to a TA/professor? Maybe they’ll have some study tips for you, or can help you get back on track. Does your school offer free tutoring? Would that help? The first step is to pinpoint the problem… do you understand the concepts? Is it just exams that are bad? Can you do homework/labs okay? Figure out where you’re struggling, and then see if you can get help with it. School wants you to do well, they want you to learn and they want you to pass classes. (Also, because it’s a STEM class, maybe it’s curved? Do you know the grading scale, and how you stand relative to the rest of the class?)</p>
<p>Transferring: Whether or not your classes transfer to a new school will depend on the new school more than the old one. In my experience, most schools are pretty nice about transfer credit, at least for GE classes and lower level courses. They might be stricter about major requirements, though. If you’re serious about transferring, you should be looking into that ASAP. I’m not sure who still has apps open… around here, apps were due back in November. That’ll vary by state and school system, but the sooner you look into it the better. But figure out if transferring will actually help before you do anything drastic. It sounds like your problem is more being new and not making a lot of friends yet… will going somewhere else fix that, or is the problem just going to follow you?</p>
<p>Roommates: I have tried talking to them. Last semester when I first moved in and saw how disgusting the dorm was i spoke to one of my roommates(the only one I ever see) about their cleaning habits and whether or not they cleaned on a regular basis. She reassured me that that was not how the dorm always looked and yet, all semester the dorm was filthy. Although I was not trying to hound them, every once in a while last semester i would stop her and talk to her and bring up the situation. She would always say the same thing and make up excuses for the other roommates( they are friends i think). This semester we had the opportunity to go over our roommate contracts so I made sure that I communicated through her to tell the other roommates that we needed to meet and go over our contracts( I would have asked them myself but one hates me and the other I never see). When it was time for us to sit down and go over it, only the roommate that i talk to (Blossom) showed up. i made it very clear to her that we needed to change the expectations listed in the contract even though most thing were listed as needing to be moderately clean because i felt that our expectations of clean were very different. She listened and we modified the contract and things were ok at first but now its starting to get disgusting again. I came back to my dorm after going home for the weekend and the whole living area and kitchen smelled like spoiled sour cream and food was all over the floor in the kitchen, the garbage(that i dont use) was overflowing, and food was all over the kitchen counter and living room table. I talked to Blossom about it and when i left this friday i saw that things were cleaner but I know it will just go back to being disgusting. I honestly dont feel like i am ignoring the problem but i am not going to go around being another grown persons mother and nagging them about it all the time. </p>
<p>Social Life/friends and clubs: I do not feel like i let what is going on in my dorm rule my social life. I have a friend who came to UF with me from high school and spend most of my time with her. I try to find things to do around town other than parties like going to the movies, studying together, going out to eat, working out, etc. I love working out and esp doing workouts outside but last semester i injured my ankle at Boot camp, and exercise program offered at UF. Since then it has been hard for me to really get back into working out like that again. I put off physical therapy for so many months because i could not afford it at home but now i am finally attending and hopefully i will get back into working out in the fall. The fact that I have severe allergy issues and am allergic to every tree pollen has also hindered my ablility to workout outside. Yes I have and do go to the gym but I see that I am less motivated and more distracted when i go. The only way I can stay for long is if there is a tv show that i want to watch on the elliptical. I do like the west African dance class that i took this semester even though i can no longer do the dances. I really enjoy the company of the teacher and have met some pretty nice people as well. One of the girls in the class is very helpful and I plan on trying to do something with her outside of the classroom this weekend. I honestly have not had very much luck with meeting people. I usually meet someone i like and either our schedules dont mix or they end up not returning my phone calls or texts. One girl that i am still trying to establish a connection with blatantly told me that she does not answer her texts or calls alot of the time even though she sees them. It kind of makes me want to not be her friend bc i think that is rude but i still try to text and talk to her & sometime she responds.I tend to try and study with her for chemistry and for my trigonometry class i have studied on multiple occasion with people in my trig class. I have been to various club meetings like hosa, wraps, maps, BFA, bsu, chsc, sufr club, jesus u, greenhouse, ibc, kickboxing club and etc. but have yet to find something i like and am available to do.
Chemistry: Ive talked to my professor many times. I go to her office hours M&T quite often. I do not go to my discussion class because I can barely understand my TA and I dont think he can understand the students that well either. I go to the chemistry learning center for help to talk with other TA’s from the class. I often dont receive very much help because the TA’s dont show up. I go to the broward teaching center for help with my chemistry on M&W’s. Ive tried to switch up my studying technique after Ive failed each exam and it seems like nothing works. Ive even started paying $50 a month for tutoring services. I study chemistry at least 3 hours each day and have studied in groups before. Ive done all the problems in the book and outlined each chapter.Im doing ok in my chemistry lab but on my quizzes and test scores are not good. On my first exam i got a 170/250 and 130/250 on the second & like thats all my class really consists of. My professor wont say if its curved or not but i have heard that the chemistry department is on probation this semester for failing so many students last semester so there might be a big curve. My next exam is this thursday & if i do horrible on this one and i calculate my grade and i would need to get a high c and up on my final to pass then im just gonna drop the class by the drop date on April 11. i dont want it to mess up my gpa and cause me to lose any scholarships.
Transferring: Apps are still open. For both ucf and usf they are due in like june-july. Ive already filled out my app for ucf & all I need is to send them my high school transcript. I was already accepted to usf this past fall so all i had to do was update my app and i am waiting on a decision. I have looked at the prerequisites required for Usf and ucf and both are the same as here at uf. I also looked into the prerequisites for pharmacy school seeing that i was not intending on getting a biology degree and both-uf and usf- are the same. I also looked into famus pharmacy prerequisites and the only diff is that i need 3 creds of history. As fare as will transferring fix my problem… I honestly dont know. but i do know that i am very unhappy and feel like i have tried and put myself out there as much as i possibly can. I am not the kind of person that just gives up on a situation very easily. i know myself & know that if i continue to put myself in a situation that i am unhappy in it will most likely start to effect my performance in school.I dont know if transferring will help and i know its not just going to be the answer to all my problems but i feel like i need to do something else because this is not working out for me.</p>
<p>My dd had an awful first year especially with her useless RA’s.<br>
She tried joining clubs and didn’t really make any connections, but where she finally had the most success was with volunteering. With the volunteer organizations, she made a lot of friends who had her values, and, obviously made the time to volunteer. As for transferring, do you have to stay with your grody and sloppy roommates all four years? You only have a little time left, see if you can ride out this storm.</p>